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Search terms: Media & Entertainment, Sweden

The Stockholm District Court has rendered its verdict in the Pirate Bay Case. The court upheld the charges against the four defendants and Pirate Bay's internet service provider, Black Internet AB, and issued an injunction against the defendants that prohibits them from providing services which make copyright works available to the public.

In The Pirate Bay the defendants claimed that the judge responsible for the case in the district court was biased due to his roles in the Association for Copyright and Association for the Protection of Industrial Property. The Court of Appeal dismissed the case, finding that none of the circumstances put forward by the defendants, taken separately or together, implied that there were legitimate reasons to question the judge's impartiality.

The Stockholm District Court has rendered its verdict in The Pirate Bay Case. Four men behind the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay were found guilty of contributory copyright infringement and sentenced to one year's imprisonment. In addition, they were jointly ordered to pay Skr30 million in damages to the plaintiffs in the music and film industries.

In 2006 four individuals were indicted for preparing and promoting infringement of the Copyright Act via their website. The website facilitates the sharing of a wide range of files containing music, movies and computer games. If the defendants are found guilty they could face two years' imprisonment and a fine of up to Skr1.2 million to compensate for their earnings.

In an ongoing case between the Swedish city prosecutor and the former editor in chief of Aftonbladet, a Swedish court of appeal has referred a number of questions to the European Court of Justice, whereby the Swedish gaming monopoly will be tested for conformity with EU law. The outcome of the referral may bring this monopoly to an end.

A new Marketing Practices Act has come into force. It implements the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and regulates all marketing practices, as well as contact between businesses and consumers, across all media. The most notable change concerns the act's scope of application, which has been widened to cover unfair marketing practices that occur after a commercial transaction has been completed.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that commercial breaks in films violate directors’ moral rights in those films. Although similar judgments have been rendered previously by lower courts in other EU member states, this is thought to be the first judgment of its kind to be rendered by the high court of an EU member state.